


This is our place, we make the rules

by whynotcherries



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Baelfire | Neal Cassidy & Emma Swan Friendship, Episode: s01e01 Pilot, Episode: s02e06 Tallahassee, F/M, Gen, I Tried, this is so different from how i normally write
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:54:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28043532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whynotcherries/pseuds/whynotcherries
Summary: Neal goes to jail instead of Emma.After that, fate leads them to where they should be.
Relationships: Baelfire | Neal Cassidy & Emma Swan
Comments: 5
Kudos: 10





	This is our place, we make the rules

**Author's Note:**

> OK I can't decide if I liked the way I wrote this at all but there was no way I was writing a detailed scene for each of these, especially since I _mightttt_ make it a series. ANYWAY. I tried <3\. I hope y'all like it because I've been playing around with the idea of a New Girl type of situation with Emma and Neal instead of Nick and Jess in my head for MANY days.

She hadn’t thought he was coming back. 

Besides the one _really_ close call they had, she had no reason to believe he would. In fact, she could almost guarantee that he wouldn’t, with the amount of time he’d get for stealing actual thousands of dollars worth of watches.

Of course, she hadn’t studied law (or anything else, really) but she could bet that actual, large amounts of money in stolen products would probably get you a pretty hefty sentence. Honestly, if she was in his shoes, she’s not sure she’d go back either (yes, she would). 

She hadn’t thought he was coming back, and within an hour of her arriving at the county jail, he’s led in and locked in the cell beside her.

He moves over to her once he’s able to and nobody is watching, asking if she’s okay and begging her to _listen_. She feels a little bit ridiculous for not responding -- she shouldn’t be mad. He came back for her.

She also knows that if she talks, then one thing would lead to another and somehow there would be evidence that they’d done it. Or, rather, that she’d been a part of it. 

A few days go by and they’re taken to some fancy courthouse, having been put into the same room with two separate lawyers to discuss their case. She’s told to stay quiet, to answer every question truthfully, and not to say a word about Neal unless she had to. She hears his lawyer tell him the same.

Before she’s even able to think about it, she’s sitting watching him on the stand and feeling a little more than terrible for everything.

And then he’s _lying_ to the people questioning him, telling him that she wasn’t a part of it, that she had no idea that the watches were stolen, and she sees his lawyer look like he’s combusting a few seats down from her.

Only because she doesn’t want him to get more time for lying, she tells the same story as he does. _She had no idea._

At the end, she gets told she’s innocent by the jury.

He does not.

She shows up at the prison a few weeks later, because _hell_ , if she had done that for him, she’d expect him to show up.

She shows him a positive pregnancy test and tells him she’s thinking about giving it away, and he looks at her like he doesn’t know if he even likes her anymore, but he promises he’ll be there if she needs anything. Well, as much as he can be.

They talk until they tell everyone that time’s up and she goes home. She shows up for every visiting time she can until they agree that she shouldn’t go until she’s had the baby. They hug each other even though it’s not allowed, and she promises to save a picture for him.

She shows up a few months later with tears in her eyes and a picture of her, sweaty and teary-eyed, holding a brand-new baby. He cries as she shows him and makes her promise to send it to him. 

She does.

A month later, he gets out. 

She’s waiting for him right outside the gates, leaning against the car and holding two coffees.

He’s a little shocked to see her, but he accepts the coffee and listens when she tells him to get in the car. He puts the bag of things they let him keep on his feet when he sits down, and he turns to her, “You didn’t have to-”

She shakes her head, “Stop it. We take care of each other, remember?” she smiles, pulling the car out of the driveway and driving him back to the apartment she’d rented out a few miles away. 

“It’s not very big,” she says, as she leads him inside, “but it works, I think,” she smirks, plopping her keys down on the table by the door. He nods and listens attentively as she gives him as much of a tour as she can. She makes him go take a shower before he sits anywhere.

Years go by, and they’ve managed to keep some weird, semi-platonic relationship going, “like Rachel and Joey,” Emma says.

They lived together as they moved from Phoenix to Tallahassee, and then from Tallahassee to Boston because Neal’s job was making him. Emma said that it was because she didn’t want to pay rent on her own, and Neal enjoyed her company enough not to argue with that.

She opens the door one day after work to find him there with two slices of cake, one with a cheap candle from the grocery story stuck in it.

“Happy Birthday!” he beams, passing hers over once she gets close enough and rushing through the birthday song so the candle doesn’t melt all the way before he can finish.

She blows it out with her eyes closed and then reaches over for a hug. “Thank you,” she mumbles, squeezing him extra tight.

It’s just at the point where she’s been hugging him for a little too long as they hear a knock at the door. 

“Were you expecting anyone?” she asks, and he shakes his head. She stands and goes to get the door, opening it to a little kid.

“Are you Emma Swan?” he asks, looking up at her with these hopeful eyes that she _swears_ she recognizes from someplace.

She stares him in the eyes, trying to figure out where she _knows_ him from, as she responds, “Yeah. Who are you?”

He smiles the biggest smile she swears she’s ever seen.

“My name’s Henry. I’m your son.”


End file.
